The Sickles junior should have been hallucinating by then, his body and mind protesting that he was not meant to run 5 kilometers this hard. But he kept telling himself he needed to stay a front-runner as the pack gathered behind him.

As he approached the finish with Miami Sunset's Nicholas Diaz, Zentmeyer was re-energized and found a higher gear. It was enough for Zentmeyer to maintain second place in 15 minutes, 23.16 seconds, less than a second behind Diaz.